Dynamic Assessment: Psychoeducational Assessment with Cultural Sensitivity

Dynamic assessment is a relatively new model of psychoeducational assessment. Administration typically follows a pretest-inteIVene-posttest format, with instruction embedded within the assessment procedure. Resulting information addresses issues of the responsiveness of learners to intelVention, the intensity and nature of input required to induce change, and the approach of the learner to problem-solving. The model primarily addresses issues of “how” learners learn and “how” learners are best instructed, rather than questions of classification or program eligibility. Dynamic assessment shows promise for providing instructionally relevant information for culturally diverse learners. This article describes the dynamic assessment model, examples of currently available procedures, and research specifically involving ,students from minority backgrounds.     

School Discipline,Race, and the Discursive Construction of the “Deficient” Student

Abstract

Research has demonstrated how, in the current era of mass incarceration, the punitive arm of the state now extends beyond traditional criminal justice structures into institutions typically associated with providing care or a social good. The negative effects of this shift have disproportionately impacted marginalized populations, particularly low-income black and Latino communities. This article examines one way that this extension has manifested in the realm of public education. Based on ethnographic data from a public Grade 6–12 Disciplinary Alternative Education Program (DAEP) in Texas, this article scrutinizes the program’s behavioral rules and disciplinary procedures. The analysis focuses on students’ introductory experience to the DAEP as a “strategic research site” to illuminate the program’s formal objectives, methods to achieve their institutional goals, and their intended effects on students. I find that the practices and procedures in place at the DAEP operate through racializing surveillance to constitute “disciplinary technologies” devoted to the transformation of “culturally deficient” students—a racialized and gendered classification—into docile bodies. Students are disciplined through punitive and rehabilitative methods premised on the discursive construction of “deficient” students and families.     

Clarifying the role of belief-motive explanations in multi-stakeholder realist evaluation

In realist evaluation, where researchers aim to make program theories explicit, they can encounter competing explanations as to how programs work. Managing explanatory tensions from different sources of evidence in multi-stakeholder projects can challenge external evaluators, especially when access to pertinent data, like client records, is mediated by program stakeholders. In this article, we consider two central questions: how can program stakeholder motives shape a realist evaluation project; and how might realist evaluators respond to stakeholders’ belief-motive explanations, including those about program effectiveness, based on factors such as supererogatory commitment or trying together in good faith? Drawing on our realist evaluation of a service reform initiative involving multiple agencies, we describe stakeholder motives at key phases, highlighting a need for tactics and skills that help to manage explanatory tensions. In conclusion, the relevance of stakeholders’ belief-motive explanations (‘we believe the program works’) in realist evaluation is clarified and discussed.     

International Students Pathways Between Open and Closed Borders: Towards a Multi‐scalar Approach to Educational Mobility and Labour Market Outcomes

This paper explores the complex and changing relationship between academic capitalism that encourages global mobility of highly‐skilled international students on the one hand and recent changes to immigration policy in the UK that prevent such mobility on the other. The paper is based on a longitudinal study that traces the experiences and aspirations of postgraduates from three Asian countries and their pathways from the UK universities to post study work and realities. Taking a multi‐scalar approach, the analysis of international students’ narratives unpacks the unevenness of career opportunities, barriers to settlement and various “assemblages of power” that shape students’ life trajectories. The paper illustrates how the individual‐scale projects intersect with states’ policies of both receiving and sending countries and other institutions and structures of power that operate within and beyond the nation‐states.     

Culturally appropriate pedagogy: is it always necessary? The case of East Asians learning math and science

‘Culturally appropriate pedagogy’ has become an important practice since 1990 to address the increasingly diverse student population in every part of the world. For all the good intentions, however, there is an inherent danger in identifying and accommodating students’ cultural differences: we may fall into the trap of reifying superficially or even ethnocentrically understood cultural differences and pigeonholing students simply because of their assumed ‘cultural differences’. How should we decide when a ‘culturally appropriate pedagogy’ is necessary and how should a truly culturally appropriate pedagogy be designed? This study investigates a group of Chinese mathematicians/scientists/engineers’ perspectives in order to shed light on these questions.     

Understanding perceptions of substance use education in social work: an analysis of survey responses from MSW program leaders

ABSTRACT

This article details the findings of a series of analyses regarding how the institutional leaders of Master of Social Work Programs (MSW) in the United States form their perceptions on the role and implementation of substance use concepts in social work education. Five statistical tests were performed on data collected from a 2017 substance use education (SUE) survey of MSW program leaders, and the analyses were used to explore how program leaders form their perceptions on: the importance of SUE to social work, the need for regulatory measures for SUE in social work, the SUE needs of individual MSW programs, the implementation of substance use course content, and graduating students’ substance use intervention capacities. Significant findings from the analyses showed that: the amount of foundational course emphasis on clinical SUE within individual programs is a significant predictor of program leader perceptions on students’ clinical substance use intervention capacities; different categories of substance use intervention preparedness have interconnected effects among domains of preparedness; and perceptions on the importance of SUE to social work have a significant impact on program leaders’ opinions regarding regulatory measures for SUE in social work.     

Analyzing free-text survey responses: An accessible strategy for developing patient-centered programs and program evaluation

Despite widespread availability of yoga in the Veterans Health Administration (VA), it remains unclear how to best evaluate yoga programs. This is particularly problematic for programs aimed at veterans with mental health concerns, as evaluation typically focuses narrowly upon mental health symptom severity, even though program participants may have other health-related priorities. We analyzed responses to free-text questions on 237 surveys completed by veterans with mental health concerns enrolled in a yoga program at six VA clinics in Louisiana to characterize veteran participants’ experiences with yoga. Qualitative analysis resulted in 15 domains reflecting veterans’ individual health-related values and priorities. We use results to illustrate the potential for analysis of free-text responses to reveal valuable insights into patient experiences, demonstrating how these data can inform patient-centered program evaluation. The approach we present is more accessible to those responsible for decision-making about local programs than conventional methods of analyzing qualitive evaluation data.     

How to make good choices? Ethical perspectives guiding social workers moral reasoning

Framing and distinguishing mainstream social work ethical perspectives could be useful for social work students and practitioners facing moral choices in daily practice. The article presents a summary and classification of a range of ethical theories and provides some insights into the relationship between ethical thinking and practice issues. It distinguishes between classical approaches and ‘situated’ positions. The former – which includes teleological, deontological, and rights-based approaches – refer to universal and general principles. ‘Situated’ ethics are linked to specific and unique situations of professional practice. Finally, the article suggests some useful questions derived from each approach in order to help students to reflect on complex ethical choices occurring in daily practice.     

Connecting Learning: How Revisiting Big Idea Questions Can Help in History Classrooms

Many school districts across North America have turned to a framework for curriculum design and instruction called “Understanding by Design.” Included in the framework is a call for teachers to create “essential questions” that provocatively ask students to consider and learn the “big ideas and core processes within the content standards” (Tomlinson and McTighe 2006, 26). Essential questions guide teaching and engage students in uncovering the important ideas at the heart of a subject (Wiggins and McTighe 1998, 28). The conceptual foundation for this curricular approach and for this research is student-centered learning. Although essential questions are being widely used across content areas, a robust field of research specifically and concretely considering how exactly these questions are best employed does not exist, especially not for history courses. Through a mixed methods approach, this practical action research project determined that revisiting the same essential questions throughout the school year greatly increased students’ abilities to connect learning between units, but only slightly increased their abilities to connect learning to personal experiences outside the history classroom.     

School Context and Individual Acculturation: How School Composition Affects Latino Students’ Acculturation*

Understanding how schools—a key context for children—shape students' cultural trajectories is important since these trajectories are tied to youth development and achievement. This study assessed how the size of the school's group of acculturated Latino and non‐Latino students influenced the acculturation of 1,720 Latino 5th‐grade students from urban public schools in the Southwest United States. A longitudinal secondary data analysis revealed that controlling for wave 1 acculturation, youths in schools with larger proportions of linguistically acculturated students were more acculturated at wave 2 than youths in schools with smaller proportions of such students. This effect was independent of Latino students' baseline acculturation level and was found even in schools with minority proportions of more acculturated students.     

Research Note—Program Evaluation: Enhancing Academic Quality and Program Integrity During Rapid Off-Campus Growth

By creating a program evaluation model that assesses multiple components from several perspectives, a social work division is able to determine the quality, effectiveness, and integrity of its offerings and support its mission to develop social work students for practice. This task is critical in supporting an off-campus program’s ability to navigate change and uncertainty in higher education. This research note discusses how a small, bachelor of social work program with a dual-delivery system (traditional and community-site) used the Council on Social Work Education reaccreditation process to adapt its program evaluation to ensure academic quality and program integrity during a period of rapid growth.     

Social work students’ reflections on a solution-focused approach to child protection assessment: a qualitative study

This exploratory study examines how Estonian graduate social work students’ reflections of the solution-focused approach in the context of child protection assessment can change as a result of coursework in this model. Students’ responses indicate some changes in the nature of responses after the solution-focused training course, including the adoption of techniques that help to focus on solutions (e.g. miracle question and scaling questions). Following the training, students underscored the importance of changing problem-focused ‘traditional thinking’. The findings highlight a challenge in social work education, suggesting a need to target goal-directed talk throughout the social work curriculum to support competence in conducting comprehensive, strength-based assessments.     

The Child Labor Amendment in the Social Studies Class

As part of a geography-based minority recruiting program (MRP), teachers were asked to serve as mentors for teams of high school students interested in both postsecondary education and geography as a major discipline or career path. The goal was to determine whether teacher participation in MRP programs was an effective tool to mentor underrepresented populations in geography. One component of the program evaluation examined the impact of teacher participation in a MRP by analyzing participating teachers’ classroom strategies and students’ performance in the school year following the summer program. Teachers were surveyed and participated in follow-up interviews during the school year following their participation in the MRP to determine the effects of the program's professional development components. The research hoped to reveal: (a) the participant-teachers’ function and role as mentors for students and the changes of participant-teachers’ behaviors, and (b) how any changes in their classrooms have affected their students’ understanding of geography. Data collection, reduction and analysis followed a grounded-theory approach to qualitative research. The research confirmed that participants leave professional development with an increased enthusiasm for and a better understanding of geography that they shared with their colleagues and students. Furthermore, teachers reported overcoming campus and district barriers in order to implement strategies and technologies provided during the MRP. More promising findings validate the prevailing thought that the positive energy of the MRP continues to reach into the classrooms in the following years. By understanding the impacts of professional development on participating teachers, the discipline may better recruit and retain high-achieving minority students.     

Translating knowledge into practice: using simulation to enhance mental health competence through social work education

ABSTRACT

Simulation-based learning (SBL) is an innovative experiential teaching method where students and instructors interact with a simulated client to foster students’ holistic competence in practice. Considering the context of North America where social workers are the largest service provider in the field of mental health, it is critical for educators to enhance competencies in students during the social work program. Guided by competency- and simulation-based, adult learning frameworks, this paper illustrates the development and integration of a range of educational activities into a treatment-focused advanced mental health course in the social work curriculum. We conclude by discussing how SBL enhances students’ mental health competence and provide recommendations when developing SBL in the mental health curriculum in social work education.     

Social work graduate students’ understanding of strength-eliciting questions in the context of social work assessment

This exploratory study examines Estonian social work graduate students’ (n?=?46) understanding of strength-eliciting questions in the context of social work assessment, using a quasi-experimental, pre/post-test research design. Students’ responses indicate some changes in their reflections of strength-eliciting questions after the training course. In the beginning of the course, students’ responses suggested somewhat more emphasis on a deficit approach, including focus on the past, deficiencies, hardships, and problems, while the importance of solutions, resources, etc. was acknowledged to a lesser extent. Comparing the post-intervention to the baseline, less responses and questions were focused on feelings, problems, ‘why’, and closed questions. Some changes in the students’ perspectives about strength-eliciting questions after the training course can be seen according to the concept of the strengths perspective described in the literature review. These changes include more focus on understanding solutions, strengths from the present, the view of the client as the expert, and the importance of motivation and change as well as empowering and encouraging.     

Connecting for success: Egocentric network types among underrepresented minority students at college

This study investigates the egocentric networks of underrepresented minority students. Adjustment to college for underrepresented minority students often means balancing between the origin (i.e., low-status family) and host (i.e., academic) environments, requiring students to develop different coping strategies. The analysis included 124 Roma university students. We employed the contact diary method and the EgoNet program for mapping students’ egocentric networks. We explored classification among egocentric networks by cluster analysis based on the network proportion of the origin, fellow, and host groups. Three clusters were distinguished. The Host-based cluster proved to be the most advantageous, while the Balancing cluster appeared to be the most disadvantageous in terms of network resources, well-being, and trust. Partners’ ethnicity and educational attainment showed a strong connection with cluster membership. Our results highlight that small fellow communities can successfully interconnect the origin and host groups in students’ egocentric networks.     

Using Experiential Learning to Help Students Understand the Impact of Food Insecurity

Experiential learning theory suggests that students increase their understanding when given the opportunity to experience a particular situation in addition to learning about it intellectually. This theory was used to construct an assignment to assist social work master’s students in better understanding food insecurity and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Through coding previously collected reactions to the assignment, the researchers discovered multiple reoccurring themes: increased understanding of SNAP, feelings about the program, realizations regarding individual privilege, client stigma, the social experience of eating, and empathy for those who experience food insecurity. Through this exercise, students increased their knowledge of the program and also gained a better understanding of how food insecurity personally affects individuals and families.     

Threats and Supports to Female Students’ Math Beliefs and Achievement

This study examines how student perceptions of teacher practices contribute to female high school students’ math beliefs and achievement. Guided by the expectancy–value framework, we hypothesized that students’ motivation beliefs and achievement outcomes in mathematics are fostered by teachers’ emphasis on the relevance of mathematics and constrained by gender‐based differential treatment. To examine these questions, structural equation modeling was applied to a longitudinal panel of 518 female students from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study. While controlling for prior achievement and race, gendered differential treatment was negatively associated with math beliefs and achievement, whereas relevant math instruction was positively associated with these outcomes. These findings suggest inroads that may foster positive math motivational beliefs and achievement among young women.     

Recruitment and Retention of Latinos in Social Work Education: Building on Students’ Community Cultural Wealth

Spanish-speaking and culturally sensitive social workers are in high demand throughout the country to work with Latino clients. Latinos currently represent about 11% of active social workers, limiting the capacity of social work to effectively address the needs of the Latino population. Despite this shortage, little attention has been paid to the recruitment and retention of Latinos in social work. This article presents a case study that examines a BSW program accredited by the Council on Social Work Education, at a bilingual, private college where 90% of students self-identify as Latinos. It details how the BSW program builds on the students’ community cultural wealth to ensure continued recruitment and retention of Latino students. Implications for social work education are discussed.